How We Judge Performance

Something I'm going to change from our old review style is I'm going to be choosing a segment of where this card will fall into for mainstream consumers. The people buying the GALAX GeForce GTX 960 EXOC, or any GTX 960 for that matter, will be playing at 1080p or below.

I've obviously benchmarked the GALAX GeForce GTX 960 EXOC at 1440p and 4K, but those results will not be impacting my Final Thoughts on the card at all. Any and all judgment on this card is going to come from the 1080p benchmarking, its overclocking potential, noise, price and power consumption.

How Does the MSI GeForce GTX 960 GAMING 2G OC Edition Stack Up?

The GALAX GeForce GTX 960 performed at near identical results to that of the three other GTX 960s that we've already reviewed. We actually saw it beating the competition where it matters most - our real-time Battlefield 4 testing in a 64-player multiplayer server.

Performance at 1080p

The GALAX GeForce GTX 960 EXOC actually lead the rest of the GTX 960s in Battlefield 4 at 1080p, in both our Medium and Ultra presets. Not by much - actually just 1-2 frames per second - but it's still a win for GALAX in Battlefield 4 with the GTX 960 EXOC.

Moving along, we see that the GALAX is about toe and toe with the MSI and EVGA cards in GRID: Autosport, but loses to the ZOTAC at 1080p. Things are even when it comes to Metro: Last Light, with 53FPS average at 1080p. Shadow of Mordor sees the GALAX GeForce GTX 960 EXOC next and neck with the EVGA card, losing to the MSI and ZOTAC cards, though.

In the rest of our testing at 1080p, the GALAX GeForce GTX 960 EXOC is pretty much neck and neck with the rest of our GTX 960s.

Performance at 1440p

While the GALAX GeForce GTX 960 EXOC was able to better the other GTX 960s at 1080p in Battlefield 4, it only lost to the EVGA GeForce GTX 960 SuperSC ACX 2.0+ on our Medium preset, with 101FPS to the GALAX and 105FPS average on the EVGA. On the Ultra preset, the GALAX card beat all of the other GTX 960s with 71FPS, with the closest competitor being the EVGA on its heels with 70FPS average.

In GRID: Autosport, the GALAX card managed 77FPS average, while the EVGA and ZOTAC cards beat it by 2FPS with 79FPS average. Metro: Last Light saw nearly identical results, with the GALAX losing to the EVGA and ZOTAC cards once again, with 34FPS compared to 36FPS and 35FPS, respectively.

As for the rest of our tests, just like our 1080p performance results, the GALAX GeForce GTX 960 EXOC performed pretty close to the rest of our GTX 960 lineup.

Performance at 4K

Performance on the GALAX GeForce GTX 960 EXOC at 4K was pretty identical to that of the MSI, EVGA and ZOTAC cards that we've reviewed. Starting with Battlefield 4, we have an average of 48FPS at 4K and the Medium preset. On the Ultra preset, that average drops down to a still respectable 33FPS - nudging out the MSI GTX 960, but losing to the EVGA and ZOTAC cards.

GRID: Autosport and Metro: Last Light saw near identical results to our other GTX 960s, as did Shadow of Mordor, Thief and Sniper Elite 3.

At the end of the day, the GALAX GeForce GTX 960 EXOC provides a decent gaming experience at 4K, but you won't be buying it to game at this resolution. This isn't going to stop you, and it allows for a great upgrade path if you want to buy it now and use it with your 1080p display, but not have to upgrade your GPU on the day you buy that expensive new 4K monitor.

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